Ambush In Mogadishu

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The Ambush in Mogadishu
The Ambush in Mogadishu is the account of the most violent U.S. combat firefight since Vietnam. The United States had been supplying food to starving people preceding this conflict. Warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid and his clansmen had been stealing the food. The United States then stepped in to stop this from happening (Whelan). The United States declared Aidid guilty of committing crimes against humanity. In an attempt to arrest him rebel forces engaged in a firefight that killed eighteen and injured eighty-four Americans.
In 1992, the United States sent Marines to Somalia as part of United Nations peacekeeping force (Operation Restore Hope) providing food to millions of starving people. Due to a civil war that had cost the lives of more than three hundred thousand people, international intervention was more than warranted (Cuny).
After the conflict quieted down and United States Marines departed, local warlords battling for control of Somalia soon raided United Nations food distribution sites and killed United Nations personnel. The warlords controlled the country by starving their people (Davis). No matter that the rest of the world was supplying vast amounts of aid to relief organizations, the people were starving to death by the thousands.
Following the slaughter of United Nations peacekeeping forces, the United States responded with a show of force Task Rangers were sent to Somalia with the primary mission of arresting warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid and his two top lieutenants of his fellow clansmen for crimes against humanity (Holmes). On October 3, 1993 members of the Delta Forces and Rangers were engaged in a pitched battle against rebel forces on the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia. The mission had been to extricate rebel leaders from a known meeting place and should have been completed within an hour.
Having met heavy rebel opposition, the eighteen-hour battle resulted in a loss of eighteen ...